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Sicily
The Republic of Pisa (formerly known as the Republic of Sicily-Pisa, officially known as the Honorable Republic of Pisa, Sicily, and the Maghreb) is a wealthy maritime state consisting of Pisa and its environs, the kingdom of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the province of Tunisia. It was commonly considered to have been founded in 1005, with the sack of Regno Calabria, but its roots reach back to the 1st millennium. History The Founding and the Pisporini Dictatorship (1005-1484) The rise of Pisan power in the Mediterranean can be traced back to the reign of Doge Imbecilius I in the latter half of the 11th century. Over the next hundred years, Pisa would seize the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, the whole of the kingdom of Sicily, and the kingdom of Africa, of which all save Tunisia was ceded to the Knights Hospitaller under the name of the Kingdom of Tarabulus. Though by the machinations of the Celts and the Italians the lands of Andalusia and Mauretania were denied it, in 1187 the Republic stood at the height of its power, with twenty thousand swords at the Doge's beck and call and the Pope whimpering at its feet. Yet all things must come to an end. Over the next three centuries Pisa would lose its armies, its prestige, and its power as the Italian-backed Venetians took over the Mediterranean trade and the Papacy turned its back on its most loyal allies, culminating in the fall of the Grand City itself in 1389. Non-Canonical History (Post-Crusader Kings 2) The First Honorable Republic (1484-present) When, in 1484, having lost the last of the West African territories to the Mauretanians in a disastrous war, and deeply invested by the Byzantines in Serbia, Doge Enrico IV Pisporini demanded yet another tithe from the Secondoge, they rose in open revolt. The Four Points, as presented to the Doge at his palace by the victorious rebels, are as follows: 1. Peace shall be achieved with the Byzantine Emperor, as soon as convenient, on honorable terms, with the view that the Pisan people have suffered enough. 2. The office of Doge shall be now and forever dissolved, to be replaced by a Gonfalionere Generale elected from among the Secondoge. 3. The Gonfalionere shall be subject once every four years to a vote by the Secondoge, and if a majority of that body do find his rule lacking, he shall immediately step down and relinquish power. 4. The Pisporini shall relinquish all their temporal property within the Republic to the officers of the Republic, and shall be barred, now and forever, from holding any office of government under the Republic or any successor state thereof. The first governor of the Republic was one Gaetano Ventimiglia, a bureaucrat of Corsican stock, a compromise candidate between those who favored reconciliation with the Emperor and those who favored a more independent Balkan stance. Within the year peace would be concluded on quite favorable terms: Serbia proper would be annexed into Byzantium to protect against further Hungarian encroachment, while Montenegro would become a dependency of Pisa. This new friendship would soon be tested when, in 1487, on the 300th anniversary of the Papal repudiation of the Pisan delegation, Gaetano declared war on the Kingdom of Italia and Tuscany with the stated aim of reconquering Pisa. Italy was at the time engaged in Iberia in support of the Papists, and in Germany on behalf of its Rheinlander allies, and with the backing of the Emperor the general feeling was that the war would be short and decisive. All Tuscany proper was under occupation by year's end, but the jubilation would be cut short by the return of the 30,000 strong Italian army from its German campaign not a month later, led by none other than Kelbani VI himself. The combined Byzanto-Pisan Army would be forced back to Sicily proper after the disastrous battle of Milan, but this proved a mistake on the Italian part: this roused Pisan national feeling greatly, and in 1490 at the Battle of Rome the forces of Kelbani and his German allies would be crushed before the walls of the Holy See. After this the Papists surrendered, spared territorial concessions over Imperial objections in exchange for a massive indemnity, and within two years the defeated Italians would cede Pisa in perpetuity to the eponymous Republic. The next eight years were of relative peace. Relations with the Vatican were normalized, and a defensive alliance concluded (this seemed Gaetano's specialty), and Pisa's military and finances were slowly rebuilt. When at the turn of the century the King of Mauretania launched his invasion of Tunisia, no one can say what was going through his mind, but with the Empire behind Pisa the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Papal, Imperial, and Pisan forces threw back the invaders and pushed deep into the desert, halted only by Pictish intervention. Wary of conflict with the Ahel Alban, and at least in private willing to admit that Pisa could not forever defend her African possessions, when terms were requested Gaetano asked only that the Mauretanians recognize Tunisia as rightfully Pisan, now and forever.